Transcending Grammar: From Linguistics to Revolutions

Dr. Frances Trix, a professor of Linguistics and Anthropology at Indiana University-Bloomington, and a recent fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars first received an IREX grant in 1987 to study Albanian language and grammar at the University of Pristina in Kosovo. Since then, she has expanded her expertise to Muslim migration in the region, Sufism, and disaster studies. In a recent interview, Dr. Trix discusses her career path.

What was it like to conduct research in then-Yugoslavia?

It was a time of political tension and stress in former Yugoslavia, particularly in Kosovo. In the faculty lounge of the University of Pristina there were three groups: the Serbs, the Albanians, and the police informants. The groups did not mix well. It took me awhile to figure out the third group.

"I am deeply grateful to IREX for support for my research over the years. The language fellowship in 1987-1988 was a turning point. But the continuing research has kept me alive to changes and continuities in the field. I am a linguistic anthropologist because of these experiences in the Balkans in these times.” -Dr. Francis Trix

How did your experience in the field lead to where you are now?

"I became more interested in watching Yugoslavia fall apart than in the admirative (a mode in Albanian grammar).It was Milosevic's first year in power, and I remember reading editorials by him, translated in the local press, in horror. The media was in the hands of the Serbian nationalists, and that is all we had to watch in the winter. I became a linguistic anthropologist instead of a linguist, partly from this experience. What was happening to the cultures and society transcended grammar and was far more intriguing.

How has your regional expertise evolved over time?

I had long worked with Albanian immigrants in North America. After my year in Kosovo, and trips to Macedonia that year, I continued to work with Albanian immigrants, but had more interest in northern Albanians. I traveled on another research fellowship in Albania;when it opened up after 1991, and studied the resurfacing of Islam. I also worked with Bosnians during the war, and of course with Kosovar refugees when that war broke out in 1998-1999. I was then asked to do a study of the UNMIK administration after the war and went back in the 2000s several times. I was well received by Kosovars because they always said, "You came before we were well known." ;Of course, my Albanian and Turkish and Arabic language skills also helped. In 2009, I did a contrastive study of local and international aid in Kosovo. This past year, I had a Wilson Fellowship to work on a book on forced migration of Muslims from the central Balkans--from Kosovo and Macedonia, and this summer I will be studying Ramadan in Prizren in Kosovo for continuing work on Islam in the Balkans.